The pen and pencil have been in use by humankind for many hundreds of years. While the origin and design of these simple writing tools is uncertain, it is certainly true that over the years pens and pencils have been seen in a marvelous variety of configurations. One of the most fanciful of these types of instruments is the colonial age quill pen. More modern designs include the popular number 2 size pencil manufactured by the Dixon Ticonderoga company, the Bic Company's disposable ballpoint pen, and the classic fountain pens manufactured by the Mont Blanc company.
However despite the wide array of writing instruments to choose from, the overall designs of these instruments are uninspired. This lack of design creativity has resulted in a significant secondary market of decorative erasers, pen lights, and other novelty type devices for persons interested in making a statement beyond those on paper. Therefore, there is a continuing need for attractive writing instruments.
In many situations, it is desirable to provide customers with writing instruments such as to facilitate the customers' ability to complete forms such as signing credit card receipts, personal checks or the like. Accordingly, writing implements, such as pens and pencils, are routinely placed in public areas for repeat use by persons patronizing that area. Examples of places where this occur are retail establishments, banks, schools, service stations, restaurants, public offices, and the like. As the majority of consumers do not carry a writing instrument on their person, it is standard retail procedure to provide a writing instrument, usually a ballpoint pen, at the point of sale, for example on the sales counter. As fewer and fewer customers complete their transactions with cash payments, more and more customers use and are exposed to these retailer supplied writing instruments. A common problem occurs when patrons or visitors to these places remove the writing implement either on purpose or by accident. This occurs on a regular and repetitive basis because most writing implements are compact and easily fit into a pocket or purse. In addition, many persons as a matter of subconscious habit, replace writing implements into their clothing or carrying cases without thinking whether that implement is their property or not since most of these implements look and feel alike. As a result, before the available supply of writing medium (e.g., ink, pencil lead, etc.) is actually depleted, the average writing implement must be replaced. In such a case, excessive expense and time are expended while the writing implements are replaced by the institution that had made the implement available in the first place.
Even though the writing instruments can be replaced fairly inexpensive, the costs associated with continually replacing the writing instruments has encouraged businesses to take steps to reduce the likelihood that the writing instruments will be taken. Some business owners have resorted to tethering their pens to a stationary object, such as a desk or a sales table. Pens found in banks are examples of this process. A downfall of this technique is that the string or chain often impairs the ability of customers to use the writing instruments. Another way businesses have sought to discourage customers from taking writing instruments has been to increase their dimensions. One common way to discourage theft is by simply taping a plastic spoon to the writing instrument. Some businesses simply “go with the flow” and place advertisements on their pens and allow customers to walk off with the pens. Another method used to thwart the loss of pens is to make the pens so unattractive that nobody wants to take them.
While somewhat successful, all of these methods have drawbacks. Therefore, there is a need for a means for making a pen attractive, yet which will discourage a person from taking a pen with them.